I have made use of a great deal of various email list systems for many years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a big proponent of digital sovereignty and owning your very own system. Because of that (and the incredible features), I have been making use of Beehiiv Google Tag Manager.
So, it is certainly an unusual move for me to determine to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I intend to discuss why I made the switch to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I intend to resolve the issue of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d likewise like to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Allow’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Developed For E-newsletters
In Problem # 435 of my e-newsletter called My Leisure activity + A Big Shift In Method, I spoke about how and why I chose to transform my RV blog into mainly an e-newsletter. I determined that was the business design I intended to pursue with that building.
However, to purposefully pursue it as an e-newsletter, I desired a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the e-mail checklist for Happily recreational vehicle, however FluentCRM is not a newsletter platform. It is built to be a CRM and marketing automation device and, frankly, using it for newsletters is a bit of a waste. Much more on that in a little bit.
As I said because issue of the newsletter …
Put simply, BeeHiiv is a system with devices developed into it certain to my purpose. Things such as:
- Capability to publish (to the blog) and send out the e-mail at the same time without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Constructed in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM doesn’t have that and I would certainly require a third-party device like Sparkloop.
- Built-in capability to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Hyperlinks”, which are generally one-click subscription links. Great for promotion in various other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Hyperlinks, however, so there are methods to do that.
- Ability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Built-in advertisement network, if I pick to generate income from with ads in the newsletter. And I may.
- Integrated capacity to run a paid e-newsletter upgrade and basically run a costs e-newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Basically, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers with features focused on development. The platform was actually constructed by the people who built up the modern technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the point here. BeeHiiv is constructed from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various objective.
And I ended off with this:.
I may indeed be moving The Side over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I really did not consider it for long. Actually, I simply went for it. And as a matter of fact, The EDGE was re-branded over to The Early morning WP, set off as it’s own home to make sure that I can expand it more intentionally also.
The goal is that each e-newsletter has the ability to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded separately. Happily RV was young, so very easy to shift. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things right here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will certainly constantly be carefully connected with the Blog Marketing Academy, but does not need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv due to the fact that it was built for this purpose. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Simply A Normal Email List
There’s a distinction in between an e-newsletter system and just an e-mail list.
You can host your email list anywhere you desire and there are a variety of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted options like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the distinction?
The key distinction is that, with a newsletter platform, the act of publishing suggests that it is going to your internet site and to your e-mail clients simultaneously.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have a site. You are publishing to that web site. But, you are additionally dispatching to all subscribers at the same time. The internet site and it’s subscribers are all in one. This makes administration of the system much easier.
With the majority of e-mail platforms, any newsletter you set up is done as an email campaign. It is developed entirely individually from your internet site. So, for instance, you might release a write-up to WordPress yet after that you would certainly need to independently construct and send out an e-mail to your checklist to send it to clients. These are then two separate collections of archives and 2 separate actions due to the fact that post and your e-mails are not inherently connected.
The closest point that turns WordPress into a true newsletter system is Newsletter Glue.
It is a fitting name since it virtually “glues” your e-newsletter to your WordPress messages and allows them to be the very same thing. Definitely, something like Newsletter Glue would certainly be a strong alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. However, you would certainly lose the growth tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Publishing a newsletter naturally comes with a various set of demands than a typical e-mail list.
You do not typically require much marketing automation. You do not typically need autoresponder sequences, occasion monitoring, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation platform.
What you DO demand, however, is one seamless publishing experience and development tools to assist you construct your customer base that specify to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my clients that I was going to change the e-newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had lots of people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I picked to select BeeHiiv, that doesn’t imply I assume Substack sucks. As a matter of fact, due to the fact that Substack has actually been around much longer, it is elder and has more features.
Even though BeeHiiv is younger, there are a couple things that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly tailored to newsletter publishers. Actually, it is essentially developed by the same people who developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, doesn’t matter. Yet, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward e-newsletter development called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “maker”. Growth is what I have an interest in below.
- That branding and distinction also suggests that BeeHiiv has some rather large brand names and large magazines utilizing it. Whereas SubStack is aimed even more at solo designers. Once again, it simply tells me the client character difference in between the two firms.
Sending our my e-newsletter through FluentCRM really did not exactly draw. The only factor I would certainly contemplate drinking points up is if I assumed I could expand the listing much faster. And BeeHiiv spoke precisely to that goal.
Due to the targeting, I actually don’t view BeeHiiv and Substack as straight rivals. I believe BeeHiiv is targeting a different sort of consumer. As a matter of fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more straight rivals.
But, let’s dive deeper than simply the placing right here.
Things That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv seems like it was developed by individuals who understanding email marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems much more tailored towards developers.
As an example, BeeHiiv supplies customized areas on customers. Currently, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. But, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv provides Automations. As a matter of fact, it is an aesthetic automation builder that works a whole lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite limited in triggers and the only activity is the ability to send an e-mail. However, improvements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have new triggers in addition to brand-new actions, such as modifying custom-made areas, sending webhooks, etc. I’ve already seen improvements to their automations simply because I began making use of the platform. For example:
- Ability to activate automations based on which particular embed form they can be found in on.
- Capacity to immediately do re-engagement (and handle people based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do standard conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations such as this. Likely, it never will. Substack just can not do this since the target audience of Substack just wouldn’t think to approach this like an e-mail marketer.
When it pertains to writing your e-newsletters, the writing interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored toward e-newsletters. As a matter of fact, it actually has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it works. I locate it to be much more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating user interface behaves and clean, but it would be more comparable to the classic editor for WordPress. Toolbar at the top.
This difference is more than just type. For example, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Area” and then placed anything you desire in it. After that, you can put Presence alternatives on that particular section to reveal it only to paid clients, hide it from email, hide from customers, reveal only to customers, and so on. Substack uses nothing like this.
And when/if the time comes that I start a costs membership version, BeeHiiv does not take any income. In fact, you essentially connect approximately your own Stripe account and it bills directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your income. Relying on how many customers you get, that 10% can be quite a bit more money than the regular monthly price of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This could seem nerdy, however what it implies is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can really make BeeHiiv collaborate with the outside making use of tools like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack literally has … absolutely nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was a lot more developed towards actual e-mail marketing. It was developed by individuals who “get it”. Also the opt-in kinds and the landing page designs appear better constructed for conversions. Development is nitty-gritty with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I would like to see BeeHiiv add, I like the instructions it is going greater than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have actually stated, Substack settings itself toward “developers” greater than email marketing experts and e-newsletter proprietors. Therefore, you see some things tailored a lot more toward individuals who just believe in terms of material development.
For example, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Likewise, while BeeHiiv does support multiple publications, they are dealt with quite separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to numerous magazines at the same time. This isn’t something I call for, however … trendy for individuals that might require it.
Substack additionally has even more social functionality built-in. For instance, it has a conversation feature to host talks with clients. It also has a “Notes” feature which functions sort of like a social media newsfeed where you can share points from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Interesting. On the whole, Substack is set up to be much more like a social network which sustains long-form web content.
Overall, Substack is also much more … minimalist. You either look after that or don’t. Personally, I do not. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of interface and, truthfully, features … Substack functions rather well.
However, I’ll be clear below …
When it comes to actual marketing, I don’t think there’s much uncertainty that BeeHiiv is better matched. I tried to find even more points that make Substack better than BeeHiiv, however truthfully … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are commonly through to be the closest rivals, I really see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are going after the exact same target audience and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is additionally placed at makers (like Substack), but it is a lot more strongly accommodating individuals that do it for company. ConvertKit has great visual automation building, it’s very own business platform, and extra. ConvertKit is an actually nice platform.
I’m not going to birthed you with a full feature-by-feature failure here. ConvertKit is popular currently. Yet, below’s just how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Points ConvertKit Is Better At …
Currently, ConvertKit has more adaptability when it pertains to it’s automations. I will additionally say that I find ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit extra instinctive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains tagging. This is just a basic feature of email checklists that makes it possible for segmentation in a much more flexible means than BeeHiiv currently does. I expect BeeHiiv to sustain tagging at some time soon, truthfully. It seems like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Google Tag Manager.
ConvertKit does now give the capability to offer points through their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is essential to you, it might be a big deal for you. For me, nevertheless, I would certainly always choose a more straight choice anyway. For me, I prefer to utilize my own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and for that reason has way extra integration options. Tons of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit also has their own WordPress plugin that is quite effective. As an example, their plugin now also supports member-gated web content as well as auto-embed of your newsletter archives right into your site. Basically, this a lot more carefully puts ConvertKit right into straight competitors by having you be able to publish to your site and your e-mail list at the same time.
BeeHiiv is badly doing not have in these sort of third-party integrations at the moment. It’ll get there. Yet, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is also active dealing with the growth devices of BeeHiiv. For instance, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Suggestion Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, yet you can likewise pay per lead within the interior ad network of BeeHiiv to grow your list. These are really incredible features of BeeHiiv. Yet …
Did you know ConvertKit acquired Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of one of the most well known viral promo platforms for newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the creating on the wall surface wherefore this implies for the system going forward.
Things BeeHiiv Is Much Better At … Beehiiv Google Tag Manager
BeeHiiv is a lot earlier in it’s product cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that suggests much less features and much less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. Nevertheless, it also implies that they are rapidly creating.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have witnessed practically once a week launch of brand-new features into the system. And these aren’t puny little features … yet large features that are fairly essential. Their rate of growth at this moment has actually been impressive.
I also very much value how receptive they are. As a matter of fact, among their product statements concerning some layout enhancements to the web design features in fact contained a little issue with the web content width. I just responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly obtained a reply straight from the CEO:.
That exact same day, the problem was taken care of.
Few days later, I gave them one more tip …
Certainly, in a bit over a week of that exchange, the ability to activate automations based upon the embed form used was contributed to the system.
That sort of responsiveness and straight participation of the team is something I actually appreciate.
An additional significant point of distinction right here is the price. Both systems supply cost-free plans, nevertheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses more capacity and even more subscribers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
When you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more beneficial. ConvertKit appears more affordable initially look due to the fact that their pricing web page reveals reduced numbers, nonetheless the customer restrictions are much reduced and your rate promptly boosts as your list grows.
With BeeHiiv, your first degree paid plan starts at $42/mo (paid yearly), nevertheless you can have up to 10,000 customers. That very same dimension listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Range” plan with BeeHiiv (their finest plan and the one I personally utilize), you can grow your listing as much as 100,000. A list of that dimension would certainly run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that puts you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay every year, also. With BeeHiiv, you can get all that for simply $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it involves pricing (in a good way).
Will BeeHiiv eventually increase rates? They might as time takes place. Yet, I’m presuming individuals like myself who are currently in will be locked-in. We’ll see how points proceed.
Points I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
Among the important things you certainly require to keep in mind is that BeeHiiv is reasonably young. They do appear to develop rather quickly and make new product announcements somewhat commonly, however there are some standard features I truly desire they had that I need to just wait on.
One is that they need to have a setting on subscription types where I could pick an automation to run right at the type degree. That would certainly be AWESOME for many reasons. Currently, registration forms look OK, however there’s really little settings for them to assist in division.
It would behave to have identifying at the customer degree. This would certainly be effective.
I believe webhooks should be part of automations to make built-in automations simpler and reduce dependence on outdoors devices like Zapier.
There are additionally some minor administrative user interface adjustments that would be handy. For instance:
- Capacity to mass edit/remove subscribers.
- Capacity to bulk edit blog posts (for example, to mark a lot of them at the same time).
- Having a few standard areas as conventional on customers (like the name).
- Some even more personalization choices for the website (such as even more versatile shade choices, heading control, etc).
So, yeah … there are some shortcomings. Points I hope they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, yet it isn’t best and absolutely not nearly as developed as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM product.
It probably never will be, either. As I said, the objective is various so it wouldn’t a lot a lot of feeling for BeeHiiv to come to be a full marketing automation platform. I presume you never ever understand, though.
Last Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Review
I such as BeeHiiv quite a lot. Sufficient where I decided to change my very own newsletters over to the platform in spite of my individual choice for digital sovereignty and possessing my own system.
Put simply, for the e-newsletter publishing version specifically, I saw sufficient value in their platform to require the adjustment.
Bear in mind, I do not utilize BeeHiiv as my special email checklist. I make use of BeeHiiv wherefore it is proficient at, yet I purposefully have points establish to ensure that I also keep my listing “in residence” within FluentCRM.
If you utilize BeeHiiv, I recommend you do the very same. It is simply a good insurance policy, for one. However, having a full-featured marketing automation platform for your checklist will certainly be of high use (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never ever will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU make use of BeeHiiv?
In my opinion, if you are making use of Substack now, I ‘d absolutely consider switching over to BeeHiiv. It will just be much more business-friendly. It is targeting different abilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch must be quite straightforward.
If you are on ConvertKit now, I ‘d probably sit tight unless you have a large e-mail list and are consequently being wooled with their high regular monthly expense. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s likewise a pretty good opportunity you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not even need them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could quickly be a much better and extra cost effective fit.
Lastly, if you plan to be extremely deliberate concerning growing an e-newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE system to think about and maintain and eye on for you.
If you utilize BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is developed to be, it is one of the best games in the area now. This is the system to watch.
BeeHiiv supplies a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It deserves checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking to the paid plan, you’ll find the complimentary account to be rather feature abundant.